Our Heleus, Our Home
by Cry-Of-A-Warp-Engine
Summary: The Archon is defeated. The Kett are forced back beyond the Heleus cluster. But Heleus has more tricks to play on the hopeful 100,000 Milky Way colonists than the monsters of Exaltation. The natural, the ancient and the personal all want a piece, be it a piece to take or to give, of the Andromeda Initiative. As usual, the crew of the Tempest, the Pathfinder team, are the ones caugh
1. Intro

**OUR HELEUS, OUR HOME**

The Archon is defeated. The Kett are forced back beyond the Heleus cluster. But Heleus has more tricks to play on the hopeful 100,000 Milky Way colonists than the monsters of Exaltation. The natural, the ancient and the personal all want a piece, be it a piece to take or to give, of the Andromeda Initiative.

As usual, the crew of the Tempest, the Pathfinder team, are the ones caught right in the middle of it.

* * *

 **Foreword**

 **Ryder**

My custom Ryder can be seen in the cover image, though I understand a few people will want to know in more depth her appearance, so I'll cover it here.  
She has green eyes, a very vivid green often related to the shade of an emerald gemstone. She's a redhead, freckles cover a large part of her upper body. Her height is on the lower end of the 'normal' region of the scale.

If you wish to create my Ryder in the game itself, directions are quite simple:

Select custom preset 10.

Change to hairstyle 3.

Keep the colour on the preset's row, but move to the first one on the left.

Eyes. Both set the ring to bright green. Inner colour: 3/4 towards bright green from the black side. Outer colour: Closer to the 1/3 mark.

Scar tissue: Type 2. Visibility: 0.1

 **Origin & Concept**

When this story started, it was quite different. People may recall 'Time & Place' from before. My own first venture into Andromeda, you might say. I got generally good feedback for it, as well as a few pointers (Special thanks to jerseydanielgibson for some in-depth suggestions) for things to improve on. As a result of this, I decided to remake a few elements of the story to count towards these suggestions.

One I bring up in particular was the confusion of a couple of people when I mentioned the concept of a series. I probably worded that badly, but let me explain. An example; I had a conversation with someone about the prolonged plot, the hinting at things. You'll see that a few times in the first episode. I was having a chat with this reader about this, the hint you will see at the end of the first chapter and the end of the third. Somewhere along the line, my reply went something like this:

 _I'll keep that in mind. I plan to reveal more about the subject in the next story so I'll try out this method then._

Their reply seemed to hint at confusion. They put 'the next story' in quotation marks like I just did. I might have perceived it wrong, but to quote it in such a context as the reader did seemed to me to maybe unintentionally hint that they didn't fully understand what I meant. That one, I could've given a miss to, but I also got the same impression from a couple others upon chatting about it, that the multi-story concept either didn't make sense or was tricky to keep up with. This is why it's been a couple weeks since I ended off Time & Place, and why this story you're on now exists.

Upon some thought and re-planning, I have to agree with you guys. The multi-story concept is tricky to keep up with, having a story called Time & Space and a story called Lost In Space in the same long story, yet linked only by having 'Part one/two in Our Heleus' is hard to keep up with. They almost seem too separate from one another, as if they are their own entire stories, like they're supposed to be their own individual sequels to the games, and that's not the aim. The aim is that the whole series is the sequel, the individual stories are just sub-plots, much like the side-missions in the game add small bits of background to the main storyline while retaining their own start, middle and end. I thought for a while on this, and how to better explain it. Then I realised the answer was staring in my face the whole time.

Episodic concept. Episodic. Episodes. In a TV series, a single episode doesn't carry its own name to the whole series. You don't get 'Heaven Sent: A Doctor Who episode'. You get 'Doctor Who Series 9 Episode 11: Heaven Sent'. The name isn't that of the episode, the name is that of the series, the episode is just the name of this section of the larger story. Why should an episodically arranged story be any different?

So welcome to Our Heleus, Our Home. This story will be made up of several smaller stories in the form of episodes, each their own plot while carrying part of themselves over into the main storyline. Each episode will be separated clearly by a 'title page' where, if there is one, a foreword such as this will be placed.

Now if you ask me, I need to cut this off before the foreword becomes a story in itself. If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to leave them in a review and I'll do my best to answer them in the next Author's Notes or Foreword. If you've any suggestions or tips, gimme a PM, mainly because they tend to lead to longer conversations than one or two ANs in a couple chapters can cover. Plus, I think we can all understand the preference to keep criticism less in the public eye, one gets mildly embarrassed by such things but not ashamed to talk about and fix them.

That said, without further adieu, go enjoy this story!

 _And you! Yes, you sat there at the phone with the energy drink and black shorts! 'What happens next' as a question won't get an answer! ;)_


	2. Initiative Database - Pathfinder Ryder

_**Andromeda Initiative console Nexus-S6-F105-12 access. Awaiting passcode input.**_

 **Tann-AA305**

 _ **Passcode recognised. "Welcome, Director Tann." Awaiting input via vocal recognition.**_

 **'Personnel files. Medical records.'**

 _ **Please specify an individual.**_

 **'Show me phycological evaluation for Pathfinder Ryder.'**

 _ **Identified. Records follow.**_

 _SAM -Node designation Hyperion- primary database file._

 _Authorisation level: BA_

 _Category: 'Fit for duty' Evaluations_

 _Sub-Cat: Psychological_

 _Human Pathfinder. ID: Ryder, Sara Lawrence_

I would first like to mention that however extreme, unpredictable and 'careless' her methods may appear to many, the Pathfinder's achievements cannot be put aside when considering these. Our relations with the Angara have remained strong, we are beginning to make small links with the outcasts and our outposts remain strong. Her methods are the cement of these many things.

When Sara's father was killed on Habitat 7, for a short time afterwards she mentioned several times that she struggled to cope. One example may be our initial approach to Eos, when she mentioned to crewmember Liam Kosta that she was 'still feeling it', referring to her father's death. I can confirm by readings of her neural activity that the memory of the event, whether recognised or not, repeatedly manifested for several days following it. At this time, I was concerned that it may inhibit her abilities as a Pathfinder. As a symbiotic linked partner to her and a new kind of AI, I would not directly intervene or make any effort to prevent her actions should they turn dangerous or hostile. Her perceptions improve my own knowledge on organic life, regardless of what they are. I did, however, mention my concern to the team's doctor, however following the establishment of Prodromos, her grief seemed to have straightened out. She appeared no longer disturbed by Alec's death, but rather driven to become the Pathfinder and the leading figure he was. Myself and the doctor deemed this a better frame of her mind, and agreed no further action would be required.

Ryder appears to have taken a more professional approach to work from then on, and her thoughts appear to traverse several 'layers' of logic. This leads to a great understanding of the situations she finds herself in, though it may be worth noting that after several interactions within the Angara, she sometimes adapted their more emotional response while in their presence. I believe this style of thought manifested as a result of her friendship with Jaal Ama Darav, however it was the events of the Archon's flagship that changed the emotion-logic blend from happening solely around Angara to becoming her main trail of thought.

Following the events of the Archon's flagship, Ryder spent several periods of time off duty. The comfort of Dr. Suvi Anwar and their growing relationship appears to have provided much relief and repair during this time, however significant changes within the Pathfinder are still evident.

Since then, her regular response almost always takes on a more casual style, sometimes this causes her to come across as angry or careless with others, though within the crew it mostly appears to generate humour, a sense of 'get it done and laugh about it afterwards'. As a symbiotically linked AI, no matter whether I agree or disagree with Sara, I will always understand her reasons. The main event which I believe changed her was when she escaped the holding field in the flagship's laboratories. The only way to remove its effect and free her was to stop her heart, as the system was locked onto 'live signatures' and therefor lost interest in anything dead. She had returned from death before, though this was following Habitat 7. Whether it was a sense of luck that she made it or that everything was 'overridden' by the loss of her father, this first loss of life did not affect her so much. Following the near-death experience, she was soon forced to choose between the rescue of hundreds of Salarians from the ark, and a handful of krogan scouts cared for deeply by her friend and crewmate Nakmor Drack. She had been lucky to escape her own death, and now was forced to subject multiple people to the same experience, except it would be final for them.

She surpassed the limit of life and then had to choose for hundreds of others. In an instant, she was forced into the position of a god. All of this degraded her professional stance. She no longer appears to attempt to become the figure her father was, rather she seems to now get things done by any means necessary. Where required, she is ruthless and forceful, intimidating to those who oppose her. Some might say that a more 'renegade' side of her has manifested, drawing quickly level with her previously dominant 'paragon' attitude. This new style has its benefits, as it appears to have earned her the respect of outcast leader Sloane Kelly, who shares a similar yet even more ruthless fashion of leadership. It may be that she feels mutual ideas with the Pathfinder, or possibly that she might see a younger version of herself there.

Regardless, Sara Ryder at current serves both effectively as a Pathfinder, both as a representative of the initiative and within assigned operations. My only concern for her is that should this 'renegade' manifestation of casual and emotional approaches continue to grow, there may be the risk that they could overpower her duties as a Pathfinder and endanger further assignments, relations and ultimately, those under her command. This concern, however, is minor, and should not yet be any reason to consider relieving her of any current duties. As she currently stands, she is a valuable asset to the initiative.

 _Entry complete. Evaluation concluded._


	3. Episode One

Episode One:  
 **TIME & PLACE**

* * *

The cluster has been relieved of the Kett nightmare machine. The crew of the Tempest want some down time. But for a Pathfinder and a scientist looking to spend some time alone together, they know all too well that trouble, discovery and danger stops for nobody.

An unknown discovery on their Eos colony breeds curiosity, excitement and fear. But it will not come without its costs. How much will be lost before they find out what it is and if it is a thorough threat to the colony?


	4. E1C1: Together

**Chapter One - Together**

* * *

 _To: Ryder_

 _From: Suvi_

 _My dearest Pathfinder._

 _Kallo thinks I've lost it because I keep smiling and giggling for no reason. Except it's not for no reason. You're the reason._

 _Suvi_

It brought a tiny smile to Sara's face to see that message again. When she met Suvi, when they first lit their love in her Tempest quarters, it had been a brief break from their work. But when she got that message, she just knew that it went beyond a break. They were really something.

The lightly freckled redhead turned off her flickering, damaged omni-tool, returning that arm to lightly rest around the Scottish woman before her, Suvi's eyes closed as she laid the top half of her body on Ryder's lap. She looked down to Suvi's face, her eyes narrowing slightly as she saw that blood still continued to seep from her right eyelids. She couldn't see anything to wipe it away with… in the end, she reached to her shoulder and ripped the sleeve of her top away, making sure to use the inside of it on Suvi, knowing that getting sweat in her eye would be much less of a bother than grains of sand.

In the process of ripping the shirt, however, she'd mistakenly stirred Suvi from her brief rest and quickly placed her hand on the side of her love's face.

"Don't… open your eye, Suv. Just keep it still." Sara said quietly, before she lightly dabbed the cloth at the bloodied eyelids, almost feeling a twinge of that same agony herself as Suvi's pained whimpers hit her ears.

"Sara… d… did you… send out the signal?" Suvi managed to ask as Sara dabbed away the blood.

Sara made sure the blood was gone before she replied. "I did… I hope someone hears it."

Suvi glanced her left eye down, a twinge from her right eye as it tried to match the movement. "Sara, are we… are we going to be okay?"

"Suvi…" She'd answered many people's fear of death before, as a Pathfinder helping people in trouble was practically second only by the main objective. But this was different. Her own life was also in as much risk here, and she wasn't sure she had the heart to tell the one closest to her that they would likely die today.

She wouldn't lie to the woman she loved… so what could she tell her?

"I… sit up. I… need to take a look at that eye."

Suvi nodded and carefully shifted herself upright and up the dune bank slightly to be level with Sara. Ryder's fingertip lightly touched to the eyelids seam, releasing the tiny biotic field she'd used to keep the lids sealed.

"Slowly… carefully, open it carefully."

Suvi did so, slowly parting the lids… Sara's head tilted down slightly, her eyebrows lowering in an anger that was only almost contained. There she saw the eye…

* * *

 **Several days earlier…**

 _Prodromos outskirts_

 _Eos_

 _8:45_

 _Temp. 32.6°C_

It was quiet out here. It had been a lot ever since the Kett were chased off the planet. The quiet, the light breeze across the sands, rustling through the thin spaced out long grass, it was one of the comforts Ian T'Sari enjoyed most about Eos, and luckily enough, it came with his job.

His short range 4x4 scout car pulled over to the side of the dirt trail, at one of the signal relays by the lake. They were there to boost signals from scouts and probes further away from the colony, high priority things to repair if they went down. Relay Alpha-7 had been showing errors for the past couple of days, so he'd come out to check if there was any damage.

Stepping out of the car and towards the small metal hut, he made his first observation. Cables and bits of insulation tugged out of the edge of the roof, by the looks of it a beaked animal had been trying to get into there. He found this strange, Ian didn't know of any beaked animals on Eos. For that matter, the only ones he knew of anywhere were on Kadara.

The huts had no internal lighting, so he had to use his flashlight to see inside. The cables were a mess, ripped open, conductive dust spread across the floor. Then he saw one of the cables in particular... still moving.

He was cautious. The brown haired man was nervous at this point. His flashlight turned slowly upwards... there it was.

Nestled in the top area of the shed was a bird of sorts. A long neck, small head and a beak, it looked to him almost like a form of pre-historic swan. He reached his hand up towards the animal, which turned its head from the cable to his approaching limb. "Hey, little fella... now you're either rare, or a long way from home."

The next noises to leave Ian's mouth were gut-wrenching screams. Several bangs slammed through the shed as he flailed his arms. Then came the splatters of blood, then the M3 Predator going off several times.

Then he fell.

A grunt left his mouth as he hit the floor. The last noise to ever leave his lungs.

* * *

 _Prodromos outpost_

 _Eos_

 _11:52_

 _Temp. 38.4°C_

Tempest blasted its thrusters to slow descent once it hovered above the landing zone of Eos. The ramp unfolded, the wing legs extended and appearing almost a touch bird-like, the scout ship touched down on the desert sand.

"Don't often get daylight shining in here."

Suvi smiled, though she did her best to conceal it, trying to use her cup of tea as a distraction. The voice of Sara Ryder as she entered the control room was one that always sent a rush through her, even after months of being together, hearing each other's voices almost every day. The smile actually did manage to stay contained behind a professional mask… until Sara's arms came from behind the science station chair and rested around her body, instantly crumbling the professional shield as her head leaned back to look up at Ryder, the two's lips meeting in the middle.

"Eugh."

The two parted their mouths to look across to the other side of the controls, Kallo as usual discomforted by their flirting and affection.

"What's the matter flyboy? Don't like us being snuggly on your masterpiece?" Sara questioned in a light teasing way.

"Every time you kiss it away in that chair, it kills my desire to be married someday just that little bit more." Kallo answered, his dark eyes briefly glancing at the two. The two girls laughed at that, before their eyes drifted back to each other.

"Something I can help you with, Pathfinder?" Suvi asked, keeping at least half professional on the bridge.

"Actually… I was asking you that, Suvi." Ryder answered, Suvi turning slightly confused as she put down her cup, the bottom magnetising to the console unit. "You remember, first time we met on this bridge, I made a bit of a promise?"

"When we first met?" Suvi questioned. Sara nodded and she began to recall it. "You… You said you were good with danger and that you could make sure I was okay out there… out… oh Ryder, I couldn't!"

"And why not? We're here not just to check up on the outpost but to relax, have a bit of semi-shore leave." Sara replied after she pushed on the edge of Suvi's headrest, spinning the chair around to face her.

"I'd love to, really, but I mean… I've got research to do, and someone needs to watch the scanners and power distribution levels aboard the-"

"I can cover that."

The two looked, surprised by Kallo's support. "She's right about one thing, Suvi, the only time you ever leave the ship is on the Nexus, and then you're straight off to the science lab. Go on, indulge in Andromeda, I'll take care of things here."

"With my assistance, Kallo will be quite capable of maintaining ship functions and sensor readings simultaneously." The voice of SAM added.

"You sure? I…" Suvi asked as she slowly stood up, Kallo nodding… then she smiled and lept up at Sara, wrapping her arms around tight. "I can go out there!" She exclaimed, before smashing her lips to Ryder's.

"That doesn't mean you can do that on the bridge! Go on, skoot, snog it out in the Nomad or something!" Kallo said in response as he stepped towards them, the two laughing as they darted out of the bridge and sealed the door behind them. Kallo shook his head with a smile before he returned to the pilot station. He may not have taken much appreciation to their flirtatious conversations on the bridge, but if the science liaison and the Pathfinder would be happy together, he'd do all he could to let them be just that.

The two excited young women took the route through the ops hub and to the upper level of the cargo bay, taking the lift down to the Nomad.

"Forward jumper thrusters replaced, Pathfinder, and the third axle differential. Try not to run over a Remnant drone and have it explode underneath this time?" Liam said as the two walked towards him at the side of the Nomad.

"Yeah, I got ya. Hey, hold up there, Suv." Sara said, the second half as she placed her hand on Suvi's side as she was about to climb into the open Nomad. "Need to get you an away kit first."

"Are you serious? I get armor too?" Suvi asked as she followed Ryder to the armory, a small new room in one of the three created when the cargo bay was divided in the recent refit of the ship. "I think I know what I do with… these…"

The Scot's voice trailed off when she turned around, taken by surprise when she saw that Sara's jacket and shirt were already off as she had began readying to change into the armor's undersuit. Sure, she'd seen the Pathfinder's body before, though usually in the comfort of the forward quarters. She was a bit startled of other things too, how quickly it seemed that Ryder could get changed, though she supposed it was necessary during numerous rapid response times that she'd been through.

"Do you… always… change where others can see? I… I'd assume you and the teams would take it in turns using the room or…" Suvi struggled to put the words together, though her answer came when Sara's response was to reach to the left wall, pulling out a curtain that divided the armory into two. "That… answers that one then." She replied, before she turned back towards that side's locker units and took a few breaths, a moment to calm before she examined the suit. "Do I… keep my underwear and…"

"Yeah, you don't have to be completely naked under that." Sara answered, already pulling up the leg sections of the under armour.

"Right… sorry, just… the only thing like these that I've worn was a wetsuit, and you have to strip for those." Suvi answered as she began to follow with removing her clothing.

Ryder was a bit surprised to hear that. "Wetsuit… you went diving?"

"Mhm." Suvi answered. "Back on Earth, before I joined the initiative. I went through a brief time where I was interested in ocean discoveries, coral reefs and tectonic trenches and that. I've a good few hours under a wee bit of water."

"I'll have to keep that in mind when we need to do a 'wee bit' of diving." Sara replied, smiling and laughing a slight bit at the accent she adored.

Suvi spoke again after a few moments, struggling to get the suit on. "Ryder, I… I think I have the wrong size here."

"The suits only change for species, within one it's size adaptive." Sara responded as she pulled the zip up her back and popped in the clip at the neckline, before she stepped over towards Suvi who had it stuck at her waist. "Come here, I see what you've done." She said as her hands went to the suit to help adjust it.

"How the hell do you get it right so easily?" Suvi questioned, once again observing Sara and that her suit was on exactly how it was meant to fit, all pads in the right places and few creases or stretches.

"Practise, like all things. I didn't start with armor in the Initiative, back when I was working with Prothean artifacts, we could end up anywhere. And run into anyone." Sara answered as she fixed where Suvi had made her error, the sleeve having gotten inside-out and tangled with the rolled up waistline. "We even once ran into Cerberus… lucky that didn't last long, our group leader thought fast and shot their transport, exposed fuel chamber. Blew them right up."

"Blimey… that must have been scary."

"You kidding? I was absolutely terrified, I barely even knew how to hold a gun at the time… but that's where everyone starts. And we learn."

The suit came untangled and Sara turned the sleeve back the right way. She pulled the main body area up, holding out the sleeves for Suvi to put her arms through. Suvi's was slightly different to her own, there were zips at the front which enclosed replaceable armor pads. It was as she had checked the pads were all in good shape and began to pull the zip up that Suvi's hands rested on her forearms, which stopped midway.

Their eyes had then locked. No words with them, if there were such a thing as human telepathy, they were using it. Ryder's hands slowly pulled the zip up the rest of the way, then stepped closer. Her arms went around Suvi, hands finding the zip at the base of her spine. She was making sure to be slow about pulling the zip up, this was a moment to last, breath brushing over each other's cheeks in such close proximity.

The zip clicked as it reached the top, at the back of Suvi's neck. One of Sara's hands moved to clip in the collar… and then moved up to her cheek. Suvi didn't initiate the kisses as often as Sara did, but when she collided her lips at that moment, Sara had no argument with it. Their kiss was long, their arms locked around each other as they did. For a moment, the desire of going out there, riding the Nomad, being alone together on Eos, it all went out the window…

"Pathfinder?"

The two quickly parted and released each other as Liam called to them, then peeked his head in the doorway checking it was alright to step in. "Nomad's ready for you, ramp open. Whenever you're ready."

"Thank you… we'll be heading out in a minute." Ryder answered. Liam nodded and headed back out to the cargo hold, Sara and Suvi glancing to each other with small nervous laughs after almost getting caught.

"Right… here, armor plates. I think we can leave those off unless we need to go into danger itself." Sara spoke after a moment while picking up her armor plates, the chestpiece of which was her father's N7 one, reshaped to fit her properly.

Suvi looked up from her plates and smiled. "Yeah… let's get out there."

From the edge of the room, Liam watched as the Nomad powered up and the two set out, miles away in thought to the point that he didn't notice Vetra step towards him.

"Gotta love that accent."

"H-huh?! Oh, hey." Liam responded with a bit of fright. "What… do you mean, accent?"

"Suvi." Vetra answered. "She's a cute thing."

"Oh… yeah, I suppose so." Liam responded, Vetra looking at him after.

"You weren't looking at her though, were ya? Your eyes were on the Pathfinder."

"Yeah, just… I like her, but she… well, she's not into my side." Liam answered.

He began to step back towards his workbench when Vetra spoke again. "What, men? You're wrong there."

"She's into Suvi, that's women. I've never seen her show much interest to a man… maybe apart from that Reyes guy but that was quite different, she had to to keep him working with us."

"Nah, not looking at something doesn't mean it's out of your mind. She said she had a boyfriend once, back in the Milky Way when she grew up on the Citadel. I'll tell you why she never looked at a man since you've known her, it's because she set eyes on Suvi as soon as they met and she wasn't interested in anyone else from then onwards, not another man _or_ woman."

Liam looked down a bit as he thought of it… now that it had been worded differently to him, he made sense of it now. Sara Ryder did like men, she just hadn't looked at them since boarding the Tempest.

And that put ideas in the young man's head.


	5. E1C2: Troubled Sands

**Chapter Two - Troubled Sands**

* * *

" _How many times have you died?"_

" _H-huh?" Sara questioned in a startled manner. She couldn't move, only her eyes and mouth could function._

" _Have you ever drowned?"_

 _There were a number of people circling her, evil eyes staring from the darkness._

" _Perhaps you've been poisoned?"_

 _She could feel someone coming up behind her, as the others kept circling._

" _Have you ever felt the blade?"_

 _None of them had any distinct shape to them._

" _I suppose what we're trying to say, to ask, is…"_

 _The approach behind her stopped, and a hand of long, slender fingers rested on her shoulder._

" _Any requests?"_

* * *

"Ah!"

Sara jolted in fright as she awoke. She was caught off guard by the nightmare, she hadn't exactly had a past of them, it was just out of the blue.

A familiar Scottish voice spoke to her. "You okay there?" She looked, her eyes laying upon Suvi who was sat on the open door frame of the Nomad, Sara herself having fallen asleep on the sand near it. "I know a nightmare when I see one."

"Yeah… that was strange." Sara answered. Suvi swung her legs over and landed with small clouds of dust below her feet, still bare from the two having tried swimming in the lake a few hours prior. She sat down beside, leaning over and cuddling up to her dearest Pathfinder.

"Dreams are what our brains form when we sleep. We dream all the time, we just notice them more when we're not using our senses." Suvi explained, looking up at Sara after spending a moment with her head rested on the shoulder.

"They're scary as shit." Sara bluntly replied. She turned her head afterwards, feeling a light tapping on her cheek. Suvi gazed up at her, and the connection of their lips was irresistible. "You always make me better… makes me love you more every day."

"You… you do?" The blue eyed redhead sat upright to look at the emerald eyed redhead.

"Of course I do. Your accent makes you cute, your passion for science and the way you click science and faith together makes you amazing but… you're always there. If my heart gets pulled, yours revives me. Then your hand always grabs mine, never leaves me on the ground and then I know… that's why I love you."

"Sara… that's…" She couldn't find the words to describe it. The only thing she knew was the impulse to kiss her with everything she was, shifting to a position in front of her with her legs over Ryder's. This was more than just a kiss. Their love for each other was real, right here and now, nothing else mattered…

Until, that was, a scout car pulled up nearby.

"Pathfinder?" The occupant called out, shutting off the hydrogen cell power and climbing out of the small vehicle.

"Mayor Bradley?" Ryder questioned as she and Suvi stood up, straightening out her top from it being disheveled by the brief yet vigorous contact they'd shared.

"Hey… can I just say, those tea plants you've been growing here? Lovely brew." Suvi said with a smile, Ryder rolling her eyes while smiling as well.

"I'm glad they're up to taste… we've got a bit of a problem here though, think you could offer some insight? We had a… mysterious death, earlier today."

Ryder and Suvi glanced to each other.

"I'm… a scientist, that doesn't mean CSI." Suvi responded.

"I'll put it in a science investigation term then… he appears to have been ambushed by an animal we have no record of. A new species." Bradley said in responde.

That got Suvi's attention up to it. "New species? Well… now I can't resist it."

"Just be ready for blood… a lot of it." Bradley replied before he returned to his scout car, Suvi and Ryder following him in the Nomad.

Suvi shuddered slightly as she thought of it. "Blood… ugh…"

Sara responded, her eyes remaining at the windshield and where they were going. "Hey, you don't have to get too close. I'll be there with you." Her hand reached over and rested on top of Suvi's.

"I know… I'll be okay." She smiled a little, comforted by the reassurance that her dearest Ryder would be there.

They pulled up at the signal hut, another two scout cars and a shuttle landed there. One of the first things Ryder noticed as she got out was that one of the scout cars had more sand piled at its wheels, and the paintwork of the top area of its frame was scratched immensely.

The body was carried out of the hut on a board. Ryder stepped up to it, Suvi naturally staying a couple of paces back and looking away at the first glance she had when Ryder pulled the cover back. There was hardly anything left on his face in the way of skin or hair, a similar story down to his shoulders. From there further down the skin became patchy, then the wounds gradually decreased until there was hardly anything but the blood trails themselves at waist level.

"Clearly an attack from above."

"I… I'd say so." Suvi responded, her voice sounding a bit on the weak side and her hand firmly grabbed onto Ryder's.

"Pathfinder, judging by the size and style of the lacerations, this was done with a sharp item. Most likely a creature with claws or a beak." SAM spoke through the speakers in the Nomad, Ryder taking that in. She was concentrating on examining the body and didn't notice Suvi step to the side a bit.

"Beak." The others looked at Suvi, stood at the foot of the body. Her fingers gripped something in the end of one of the boots and yanked it out, holding it up.

"A fragment of a beak. T'Sari must have kicked the face of the creature in his struggles and broken this fragment away. This may explain the entirely upper body lacerations, the creature avoided his legs which it knew to be powerful."

"Intelligent and sharply armed. Just what I wanted to hear." Ryder responded as Suvi handed the fragment to her. "If that's a sample for the whole beak, that thing could rival an omni-blade."

"You sure?" Suvi asked, holding out her arm.

"Figure of… I didn't know you had a blade." Ryder was surprised by seeing it.

"Never know when I might need it. Especially when going out to a place like this." Suvi answered, turning the omni-blade flickering away.

"Good thought… science officer with a knife, huh?" Ryder replied, before re-covering the body for the men from the shuttle to carry it on board. "So you're cute, amazing and a touch badass."

"Me badass? You're the one with the guns and muscle. And the biotics."

"I can teach you. Well… two out of three at least."

"You want me with muscles?"

Ryder stopped for a moment, thinking that over. "No… no, just don't." She answered, Suvi laughing before following her into the hut itself.

"What do we see then?" Suvi questioned. Ryder looked at her slowly, making her laugh a slight bit. "What's that look for?"

"You're starting to sound like me." Ryder answered before she brought up her omni-tool scanner, looking around. "Scratches on the walls."

"A lot on the door too." Suvi added, closing the door a bit to show Ryder the deep carvings in the door.

SAM added his analysis once Ryder pointed her scanner at the door. "It appears that whatever attacked Ian T'Sari was trapped within this hut. Anwar, would you push the roof plate on the outer edge where the markings are?"

"O-okay…" She answered before heading outside, reaching up to the roof and pushing on it… it lifted easily.

"My suspicion is correct. It appears that this creature was attracted to something within the hut. The markings on the edge of the hut are from it attempting to nudge open the roof to enter. Once within the hut, the creature found itself unable to exit by the same way. It sensed air movement from the open edges of the door, and began scraping at the only way it knew to exit. It may have been inside for several hours before T'Sari entered, and when he did, the being saw him as a threat, and attacked in percieved defense."

"Makes sense… but we still have no idea what this thing is." Ryder replied after she looked over all the details herself.

"I would now recommend returning to the outpost to analyse our findings further. And I hope my attempt to contribute to your relationship will succeed."

"Um… contribute?" Ryder questioned, confused as to what he meant.

"By asking Suvi to touch the roof rather than yourself as she is several inches taller. I hoped this would be a subject you would conversate on, in the method you refer to as 'flirting'."

"Uhh…" Suvi looked at Ryder in just as much confusion as her. "Th… thanks SAM… might want to work on flirt subjects a bit though."

"I shall endeavor to improve my skill of flirting."

"If it goes anything like your humor, I'll enjoy the next coming weeks." Ryder joked in response. Suvi dived for the side of the hut in the process of covering her mouth, remembering SAM's attempts at humor, funny to look back on because of how bad they were at the time.

She finally calmed down and motioned to the Nomad. "Right… let's go."

"Yeah, let's get these analysed. We'll flirt about height along the way."

"Don't!... Damn you, Sara!" Suvi shouted before her barrier broke and she fell into laughter on the sand.

"Come on you, we gotta get moving." Ryder spoke on the brink of laughter herself, helping Suvi to stand up and return to the Nomad.

"Right… yeah, serious business, deadly new species we need to identify, sorry." Suvi responded. Ryder looked at her for a moment once she'd climbed up into the Nomad driving seat… and out of the sight of others, she let her laughter out.

"You, Suvi Anwar, will be the death of me." Ryder responded shaking her head, before she powered up the Nomad engines.

 **-Several hours later-**

Laid on her front, legs swinging upright as she read from her data pad, on chapter 12 of an Angaran book SAM had run translations on for her. It so far seemed to be about two young soldiers in a war, two brothers a few years apart who were the lone survivors of their squad, stuck in the Vould blizzards with no sense of where they were or how to get back home, a tale of bravery and survival.

The door to the room opened. Due to Gil running some late maintenance on the Tempest, a number of the crew had decided to stay the night in the colony, though the new 28 hour day-night cycle was a bit out to them, especially when it was only just approaching sunset at 23:30.

The door opened and Sara looked up as Suvi had entered the room. She tapped the door to close, then took off her lab jacket and hung it up. "SAM is working with the guys in the lab to cross-reference the DNA samples with matches. Even half matches or similarities, to build an image of what this creature might look like. He's occupied there, Tempest is at rest… we are alone."

Sara turned off the pad and put it on the bedside unit as she sat up while the Scottish woman came towards her, climbing over the bed and stradling atop her.

"Come here, you." Sara's voice was one of desire, and Suvi bent down to her. Lips collided, bodies touched, hunger slowly began to be relieved…

Outside, a loud howling noise came from the perimeter shield tower.

Sara and Suvi both looked up towards the darkened window. "You've gotta be kidding me!" The pathfinder said with a raising of her hand, part annoyed and part amazed that she and Suvi had been yet again interrupted, the third time in the one day alone.

"Go look… please?" Sara looked at Suvi, who had a frightened look in her sky-like eyes.

"Alright, back in a sec." Sara answered, Suvi rolling off of her to let her get up. Sara straightened out her shirt, pulling on her trousers from earlier before heading outside, the door opening to her omni-tool command.

"Ryder, hey!" She looked to her side, seeing a shirtless Liam jog towards her. "The hell was that noise?"

"Maybe a dog of some sort… or maybe what me and Suvi were looking for." Sara answered as she looked around, the two heading towards the back of the unit… and then they saw three bird-like creatures landed atop one of the radiation shield towers. "Hey! Get outta here, scram! Or shut it up!"

Look, path, this is how you deal with em'." Liam said in response before he picked up a rock from the ground and threw it at the landed creatures. They leapt up, hovering on their wing motions…

"Pathfinder, they appear to be displaying shows of aggression. They may be perceiving us as intruders on their territory." SAM spoke through Sara's omni-tool.

"Then we act in like, display of force! This is our land, our town!" Liam said in response towards the bird creatures, then throwing another rock. "Scram it! Scram-"

He soon stopped shouting and started yelling out as the three dove for him and Sara, clawed feet gripping onto his left shoulder as one of them started rapidly pecking and nipping their beaks at his cheek and neck, while the second was hovering and diving its beak repeatedly at her head and the third was circling them, calling out loudly as if shouting for others.

"INSIDE, GO!" Sara yelled, grabbing Liam's wrist and pulling him with her towards the building unit.

"Oh my goodness, Sara!" Suvi exclaimed as she darted towards her while Liam sealed the door with his omni-tool. "You… your eye!"

"It's just a cut eyebrow, it's alright…" Sara responded, lightly rubbing the fallen blood from her eyelids. "I think we just found what killed our man."


	6. E1C3: Revelations

**Chapter Three - Revelations**

* * *

 _Prodromos outpost_

 _Eos_

 _11:37_

 _Temp. 24.9°C_

Daylight rolled over after a long night. The sun had risen to the point where the orange glow had just disappeared when Liam, Ryder and Suvi headed to Mayor Bradley's raised unit, a central unit of displays monitoring the outpost security cameras along with various incoming data reports and updates. Bradley himself was stood at the end, looking out of the large window-wall that overlooked the outpost.

Sat on one of the tables edge, Ryder had her hand raised as Lexi looked over the wound in her wrist, where one of the birds had managed to get a good bite on her.

"Well… it definitely looks like the same sort of wound." Lexi spoke as she observed the wound. She then held a small bottle of spray-on omni-fluid to the wound, causing the skin to start seeping with a small amount of a fiddling fluid, which slowly altered to form new flesh and skin, leaving the wound as only a slightly reddened area of perfectly unharmed skin. "Well… I'd say this is going well for yet another first encounter."

"Why does every new species we encounter want to kill us?" Ryder questioned. Bradley turned around from the window.

"Yeah, well one of my good men encountered them and I had to bury him this morning."

"What we need is a way to somehow examine one of these birds, maybe come up with an interaction protocol." Lexi suggested. Bradley nodded his head, understanding where she was coming from.

"No protocols today, doc. Not until I know what the hell these things are and why they're attacking my outpost." Bradley responded.

"I agree with him." Lexi looked at the source of the Scottish accent speaking. "Once we know what they're here for, then we can know how to deal with them. Best avoid jumping the gun, no?"

"Respectfully, Suvi, you're a physicist, not a biologist." Lexi said in response.

Almost instantly afterwards, Ryder stood up, looking at Lexi. "'Respectfully', doctor T'Perro, Suvi being a physicist means she knows the environment a lot better than you, the best thing would be for you to avoid insulting her and take her help. And besides, everyone's opinion matters in this."

"I… of course." Lexi stuttered. "Sorry, Pathfinder."

"Forgiven." Ryder nodded. "Now all we need is to… Jaal?" Everyone looked to the doorway as their Angaran crew member stepped inside, large box in one hand and rifle in the other, rested over his shoulder.

"I have been hunting." He put the box down, then opened it. Though they had variously placed burn marks from the disruptor ammo, inside were several of the bird creatures. "I overheard SAM and Suvi talking in the lab unit last night, so I took to the darkness with my fine weapon."

"Jaal, you're a lifesaver." Ryder replied, patting her hand on his shoulder.

"Literally, takes hours off our job now that we can cross off catching them. I… hope you understand if I leave the handling to you, doctor. There's good reason I'm _not_ a biologist." Suvi responded. Lexi nodded, but Jaal cut her off as she was about to pick up the box.

"I may have noticed something… helpful, out there." He stepped over towards the monitor unit. "I am unsure of how exactly to speak of it with human styles of interaction."

"By the book, Jaal. Give it to us straight." Ryder answered.

"Several of them were performing acts on one another. I myself have never encountered these animals either, but I know… mating… when I see it."

"Mating… oh god no…" Lexi's eyes widened as she pieced a few things together. "Mating instinct. Not only that, but the following maternal instinct… these things will be going to the death against us."

Bradley then remembered something and looked to Suvi. "Anwar, do you remember the data we sent to the Nexus labs, shortly after establishing Prodromos?"

"How couldn't I? I was so excited about it. But… the soil…"

"What about the soil?" Ryder questioned. Suvi looked at her.

"Oh Ryder… they found thousands and thousands of… egg shells." Suvi answered. Ryder stepped back, her left hand on her right elbow as her right hand pinched part of her bottom lip between thumb and index, a habit of hers when things got serious.

"That's why they're attacking… we built Prodromos on their breeding ground." Ryder spoke before her eyes flicked upwards to look at them, her head tilted down slightly.

A few moments of silence passed. "Jaal… where did you encounter them?" Bradley questioned.

"I took a scout car. About 30 kilometers East of the outpost, the Remnant vault appears to have kickstarted the formation of a forest. There are trees as far as the eye can see." Jaal answered.

Ryder flicked on her omni-tool and opened her channel to the Tempest. "Kallo, I need the Tempest to fire a probe, about 30 kilos east. Quick as you can."

"On it, path." Kallo answered before he went to Suvi's station, where the probe controls were.

"People call you… 'Path' now?" Bradley questioned.

"It… came up in a drinking game." Ryder admitted, Suvi and Lexi laughing as they remembered the evening, though they kept it quiet between them.

"It was a… a Q&A between us all of a more personal level. Personal as in stuff you just don't admit… and if we didn't want to answer, we had a shot of whiskey." Suvi explained, her smirk barely contained.

"People got drunk and somewhere along the line, someone just called me Path and it stuck ever since." Ryder finished, before she looked at the smirking Scottish woman. "Down girl!"

"Now I've lost you, what's she smirking about?" Bradley questioned.

"Ehh… a lot more went on that night than just drinks. A game of questions you don't speak about turned into a whole night you don't speak about, for some of us." Ryder explained, Suvi nodding slightly as she still had a massive smirk, trying to avoid laughing about it.

"Right…" Bradley started to respond. He was cut off when a loud bang echoed as the Tempest launched the probe, which went flying rapidly east. "Tapping into visuals… there's the treeline."

"My god… this place really is becoming the Habitat 1 we imagined it to be." Suvi looked at the screens with an amazed expression, Ryder's hand lightly resting upon her shoulder once she stepped closer.

Bradley looked closely. "I don't see anything… go thermal." The screen switched to a blend of bright colours indicating temperature levels… noticeably in the trees, there were a lot of reddened dots in the yellow canopy.

"There… has to be at least a thousand of them, possibly millions if that takes up the whole forest." Lexi observed, giving an approximate number.

"Well let's find out…" Bradley responded before his omni-tool opened a channel to the perimeter guards. "We're about to send a navpoint to you, need a sonic pulse fired there."

Ryder tapped in on the consoles to work in the coordinates. A loud ringing blast came from the edge of the outpost, then what looked to the thermal like a glimmering light ball slammed into the tree canopy…

Thousands upon thousands of the red shapes leapt up from the trees, taking flight in the same direction together, heading just past the floating probe. There were millions at least, that much they figured before one hit into the probe and knocked out the video feed.

"One hell of a shitstorm." Ryder quietly said, flicking off the display.

"Lexi. Suvi. I don't think it needs to be said that you need to work fast." Bradley said in response towards the two scientists.

"We'll get right on it, sir." Suvi answered, nodding at him and then smiling at Ryder before they jogged off across the colony.

Several hours passed, the sun began to set and Suvi went to the Tempest, using the uplink to contact the Nexus science teams about this. Meanwhile, after a couple more hours, a beer with Liam and a game of chess with Gil, Ryder headed to get a few hours sleep herself...

* * *

 _The work had paid off. Together, all of them, they had won._

 _Then…_

 _BANG_

 _Edron took his last breath and fell limp. His life ever since he left the Citadel had been devoted to making Sara's a living hell. If he was to die, he wanted to make sure his last seconds were worth something to his goals. And now he had. Forget killing her, his last act was far, far worse._

 _He hadn't aimed anywhere near Sara._

 _His barrel had been towards Suvi._

 _Sara was slow to turn her head, her whole head in shock. She looked at her beloved one. Immediately noticeable was the growing red patch in her white top, sending Sara's eyes widened with horror._

 _"S… Sara…"_

 _She darted over, just in time to catch Suvi as she fell, Lexi running over with them and scanning Suvi with her omni-tool._

 _"Deep shot… through the artery." Lexi spoke after reading the scan for a moment._

 _"Am I…" Suvi asked… she knew the look on Lexi's face. The same as when they'd tried to save the rebel Kett soldier._

 _The look of no hope._

 _"No, you're staying right here, hey? With me now, Suvi, always." Sara responded. The pale blue eyes moved to her._

 _"Sara… we can't… cheat death. Nothing… nothing is forever." Suvi spoke with a pain filled voice._

 _"Yes it is, you and me are forever, hey? Our love…" Sara said in response, tears in her emerald eyes._

 _"You know… after this, I was… I wanted to ask you something…" Suvi blinked slowly, her energy fading with every agonized breath. "Could… could we… get married?"_

 _"Suvi Anwar, I'd love to. Come on, hey? Stay with me and we'll get married. What do you think, you want to wear the dress or shall I?"_

 _"You look good in a suit."_

 _"Do I? I never noticed." The two laughed in response to that, teary chuckles of their last joke. "Maybe then we could look at being parents."_

 _"Parents? How the hell would we pull that off?"_

 _"Well the Asari are all female and they still make babies, I'm sure we can somehow. What do you think, James? Isabel? Even Rabbit."_

 _"Suvi…" She whispered in response. Sara brushed it off, she knew what she meant._

 _"Hey… please… you're all I have left. Scott is off with the outcasts, my mom is still in Cryo with a life ending disease… don't leave me now."_

 _"Could you… stop it?" Suvi asked._

 _"Stop… what?" Sara questioned, confused as to what she was referring to._

 _"Crying… your eyes aren't so beautiful when there's tears in…"_

 _"In…? S… Suvi?"_

 _Those eyes. Pale blue eyes more beautiful than a thousand stars… their next slow blink didn't end._

 _Sara pulled Suvi up closer to her, her face buried in her lost one's lifeless shoulder. Any time she cried, she'd always hear that soft Scottish voice asking her what was wrong, followed by arms around her. No such thing happened now. Her tears were silent but strong flowing._

 _She processed it. She'd beaten Edron… had she? She didn't see it that way, not by far. He'd taken Suvi with him. His whole aim had been to destroy Sara Ryder's world, and his final victory had achieved just that. No more Suvi._

 _The silence was broken by a single, agonized scream. The words, 'no more Suvi', they were replaying a thousand times over in her head and every time destroyed her soul even more._

 _Lexi gave her a moment before she tried to speak. "Ryder… she's-"_

 _"NO!" Sara screamed at her, the Asari backing up. There was no taking her from this…_

"SUVI!"

Sara woke up with tear filled screams, clutching her duvet close to her. Her surroundings didn't register with her, the duvet was Suvi's body…

"Sara?!"

Suvi ran into the room, quickly to the bed. "We heard you screaming from up on the bridge, what's going on?!" Sara looked up at her slowly. The instant Suvi saw the tears, she went down on the bed, laid beside her dearest one, her arms held close.

"S… Suvi… you…"

"I'm okay. Look at me." Suvi responded, before she lightly pressed her lips to Sara's cheek. "No harm, not anywhere."

Sara's arms quickly went around Suvi as well. "Never… ever… die on me."

"I'm going nowhere, Sara. You always know you have me to come back home to." Suvi whispered. "You should ask Lexi about these things. This isn't the first nightmare you've had."

"L...later. When Prodromos is safe, there'll be time to worry about me." Sara responded, sitting upright along with Suvi.

"I'm here for you. The whole way."

"Thank you, Suvi…" Sara's lips met her loved one's, the two lying down again.

Suvi opened her omni-tool comm to the bridge and spoke. "Kallo… I'm gonna stay down here with Ryder for a bit. I'll be back up later."

"Keep her safe, Suvi. Happy is how I like to see you… even if that does mean flirting on my bridge."

Suvi laughed a bit as she shut off the omni-tool… but not Sara. Suvi's death was still running through her head.

It would be for a long time to come.


	7. E1C4: Resolve

**Chapter Four - Resolve**

She hadn't slept since the nightmare.

The green eyed Pathfinder swung her legs out of the bed and stood upright, rubbing her tired eyes. She wanted to sleep, she needed to sleep… but she was terrified to do so.

Her hands moved back from her eyes with a jolt. She felt a brief sting, like a static shock had passed between her hands and her eyes but she of all people knew, static won't travel from yourself to yourself. She held out her hands, observing them…

Her veins glowed a faint blue. Her eyes widened.

"SAM, analysis? Is it… could it be happening?"

She looked towards the small node on her work desk. SAM responded to her after a moment. "Yes."

"You can't… stop it, can you?"

"I can slow its progress. As for a complete stop… I'm sorry, Sara."

She looked down as the glowing veins faded. "It's okay… not your fault I'm fucked."

She looked in the mirror, back at her fearful eyes. Reddened eyes from her lack of sleep, and noticing that made her make sure to pick up her pair of black leather gloves from the drawer of the work desk before she left the quarters.

* * *

 _Prodromos outpost_

 _Eos_

 _17:54_

 _Temp. 36.4°C_

It was midway through the day that the Scott and the Asari stepped into Mayor Bradley's unit, encountering the noise of piano music. Bradley was sat at the window, his row of musical keys ahead of him, making sure to finish his music bar before he stood up to the two scientists.

"I hope our little specimens yielded some good news." He looked, seeing Suvi hold up a small vial of a yellow tinted fluid. "I was… hoping for something a little more lethal."

"They're pheromones." Suvi explained. "We can't repel these creatures, but we might be able to attract them."

"And that would be a good thing because…?" Bradley questioned.

"The pheromones are what stimulates and controls their breeding cycle, it's what they smell on each other. If we can create a synthetic version, we can disperse it from a mobile platform and lead them away from the outpost, establish them a new breeding ground away from Prodromos." Lexi answered.

"All we need is to find a replication and a way to disperse the pheromones once they're made." Suvi added.

"You leave dispersal to me, use your time quick. We sent out a probe this morning, there's even more birds in that forest than there was yesterday and a few of them have started showing up at the outpost edge, found two pecking at a shield tower a few hours ago." Bradley responded. The two nodded before the door opened again.

"Sara… you okay?" Suvi questioned as the Pathfinder stepped into the room.

"I'm managing… tough night." Ryder answered, giving the brief answer to Bradley's curiosity.

"Nice shades. Now, need an able transport prepped to pull this off, think the Nomad will handle it?" Bradley asked. Ryder nudged her silver edged shades slightly higher up her nose.

"You'll have a hard time making her break." Ryder answered, looking then to Suvi and Lexi. "What've we got?"

"Get a big bank of pheromones strapped to the Nomad and lead the birds to a new area to make their children." Suvi responded, before she stepped over to her loved one and lightly hugged her. Ryder's hands rested on her back in return. "I'm here for you." She whispered.

"While I appreciate a good love tale, can we focus on hugging it out later?" Bradley said in response to them, the two parting after that. "Ryder, Nomad. Girls, pheromones. Me, something like a big sprayer. Let's get this done before dinner."

* * *

 _R &D Lab_

 _Pathfinder Scout Vessel 'Tempest'_

 _21:52_

 _20°C Internal_

"Try… pattern Gamma up to two thirds, then a mild omni-gel dash."

"On it…"

Lexi and Suvi had spent several hours working on replicating the pheromone, each attempt with little success so far. On top of that, they could see from the windows above them that the sky had begun to turn a slight yellow tinge, the sign of the approaching nightfall. When darkness came, the area would be flooded with the birds, which between the two of them the scientists had nicknamed 'Bitey Boys' for consistency within their work.

Suvi had tapped in the next method attempt and leant on the edge of the console for a moment, her mind again drifting off. She looked up at Lexi… she knew Sara wouldn't appreciate her telling Lexi yet but she was worried about her Pathfinder more than she let on. "Lexi. I… I've got a small… concern. Not about this, something… different."

"Just mention it, Suvi. As the doctor of the ship, hearing concerns is what I'm here for."

Suvi thought for a moment of how to word it. "It's about Sara. She's… she's not well."

Lexi looked up. "What do you mean. Sick? Injured and not showing it?"

"Sorta both. She's… been having nightmares. Third one in a row last night and… she didn't sleep after it. I'm worried that it's worse than she shows, or even worse than that, she might not even know how bad it is."

"I'll keep subtle tabs on it. I'll make sure she's alright, Suvi, I know you care deeply for her." Lexi responded, Suvi nodding slightly.

"I do care." Suvi answered. "I… I love her… the fact that she's suffering just feels…"

Lexi's hand rested on the Scottish woman's back. "She'll be okay. Trust your doctor on that…" She stopped midway as the console chimed and the display came up with results. "87% accuracy…"

"Is… that good enough?" Suvi asked. Before Lexi could answer, the three sectioned door opened, Ryder and Bradley lifting a large chemical drum between them.

"Sterilized chemical drum, used for putting fertilizers on the fields. Should hold about 60 litres, that gonna be enough?" Bradley questioned after they dropped the drum to the floor.

"It'll have to be. At the current rate, I doubt we'll be able to synthesize much more than that before nightfall." Lexi answered. Ryder stepped around to the other side of the door after hearing that, sliding down the ladder and jogging out down the ramp…

She stopped in her tracks. She didn't notice the heat on her skin, the beautiful colour of the sunset… all she noticed was the cloud. The black cloud of birds, millions upon millions of them coming to breed. And coming to tear up the colony in the process.

"Work fast, they're coming!" She shouted, quickly backing up back into the cargo bay and closing the hold door.

"We've got it on the brew now." Suvi responded, as Ryder returned to them. By now, Bradley and Suvi had attached the canister to the console while Lexi triggered the replicators to start working…

They all looked up as a loud crashing noise came from down the main corridor. Then there was yelling.

"Keep working!" Ryder said to the others, while grabbing the M6 Carnifex from her leg holster and jogging along the glass walkway, towards the triple section door at the end. She opened it…

"Ryder, help!" Kallo yelled out, flailing his arms as one of the Bitey Boys was repeatedly diving at him, having gotten into the cockpit by nudging a large rock from the cliff above which had broken through the ceiling glass. Of course, when Ryder shot such a small animal, the bullet tore straight through it and smashed a hole through the forward widescreen, the bird falling dead and Kallo falling to the back of his chair.

"Kallo, you good?" Ryder questioned, lowering her pistol to a ready position with both hands on the grip.

"I think so… thanks…" Kallo answered. He sat at his console, tapping a few things which caused the two gaps in the glass to slowly repair themselves, similar in technology to the omni-tool ability to re-seal minor splits and cracks in helmets.

"Wish I'd had one of those on Habitat 7…"

"Ryder, we're ready to go!"

"You ain't getting under my plates today!" They heard Drack yelling. Suvi darted to the cargo bay upper level, spotting Drack on the lower floor trying to wrestle off two of the birds.

She looked around quickly, seeking a way to try and help him. They were too fast for him, he'd touch them but they'd escape before he could squeeze his hand and crush them. But if he could touch them…

She raced across the glass walkway and slid down the left ladder, entering the forward quarters. She was quick to spot Ryder's Kett sword on its stand, taking it back down the corridor and to the cargo bay.

"Drack!" She called. The Krogan looked, then caught the sword as Suvi threw it. He grabbed the handle with two hands and swung it hard and fast, slashing right through both of the creatures attacking him.

"Thanks, kid." Drack responded as he lowered the sword. "Need a hand with the lifting?"

"Greatly appreciated." Bradley answered as he and Ryder managed to drag the now almost full container out to the upper level. The Krogan stepped up to beneath the edge of the walkway, arms raised ready to catch the pheromone container. The two managed to lift it and tip it over the edge of the railing, Drack grunting as he caught it.

The Krogan groaned to himself. "Damn it, I'm getting old." He carried it to the Nomad and opened a cargo port on the side, fitting the canister into it and plugging in the canister to some pipes inside the port. "Wired her up!"

"Alright, let's get this done then. Drack, I'd like a good steak when I come back." Ryder responded as she slid down the ladder to the Nomad, followed by Suvi.

"Any particular meat?" Drack questioned, though he knew what she'd reply. He just loved hearing a human talk almost like a krogan.

"First animal you come across. Just not one of these birds, way to boney." Ryder answered as she climbed into the Nomad… before she noticed Suvi getting into the other side. "Uh, I don't think so!"

"You need me to work the pheromones and besides, the Nomad is environmentally shielded, I'll be fine if I stay in here."

"The canister is plugged into the thruster tanks, it'll be dispersing through the Nomad itself, We're bailing when we get there and walking home."

"Then I'll walk with you."

Ryder knew it wasn't a dispute to be had, Suvi had plain and simply stated it, she was going too. "Fine… stay close to me."

The two sat inside the Nomad and closed the doors with a hiss of the environment seal. Ryder booted up the 'eezo' chamber engine and slowly rolled the car forward, then turned a dial. Normally the vents were there to vent heat to confuse seeking missiles, a system Gil had installed. Right now though, they began to disperse the pheromone, and slowly got the attention of the swarming birds which had already been pecking at glass with their razor sharp beaks, and had attacked a few people who dared to go outside.

"Alright you turkey shits, follow mama!" Ryder shouted as she opened the heat ports, then floored it towards the shield edge. The Bitey Boys began to dash after the Nomad, the gathering of them over the colony leaving with the Nomad looked almost like a star being slowly sucked away by a black hole, one string that slowly drained the mass until it was gone.

It took a minute for people to start coming out of their homes. Eyes gazed at the night sky, the stars and moons visible now that the mass had cleared. The occasional chirps of alien grasshoppers was all that disturbed the sound of peace and silence. The sound of Eos being safe again.

Kicking up a mist of dust along with the huge mass of following, squealing birds, the Nomad tore it down the dirt track amongst the dunes of the far out area, the outpost long behind them.

"Suvi, how far have we traveled?" Ryder questioned, having to raise her voice over the noise of the many Bitey Boys that were crashing into the outside of the Nomad, bashing their beaks on the reinforced windows which by now had told the two that the birds had clearly identified glass as an often breakable material.

"About 20 kilos now. Should be far enough, observable but out of harm's way." Suvi answered.

"Agreed… get ready, I'm gonna stop and we're gonna bail." Ryder responded. Suvi nodded, putting her datapad down on the dash, releasing her harness ready to go as soon as the doors released.

The Nomad stopped. The doors opened wide.

"Go, now!"

The two dashed out of the Nomad on each side, ducking as they ran from the flying monstrosities. Then Suvi tripped, the speed they were going putting Ryder instantly several paces ahead of her. A number of the creatures began swarming around Suvi as the Scottish voice screamed for Ryder's help.

Sara had to think fast. She sparked up a biotic charge and released a bubble, which expanded into a pulsing, spinning singularity. It sucked the creatures over Suvi into it, giving Sara enough time to grab Suvi's hand and pull her up to her feet, helping her to limp quickly away into the night. She could see with several glances that there were several wounds on Suvi's body, a few rips to her top, a nip on her right hand… and a large amount of blood running down her cheek.

"Hey, stop…" Sara stopped Suvi for a moment, lightly trailing her finger over the bloodied eyelids. She was very precise about her aim, creating the tiniest biotic formation between the eyelids with a pulling force, helping to keep them closed. "Now… let's go."

"Sara… it… it hurts…"

"I know, Suvi, I know it does. Just hang on there, we'll get a distance away, place a beacon and wait for help." Sara answered.

The two managed to travel a couple hundred more meters, until the Nomad, birds and what was now the new breeding ground was far in the distance… then Suvi cried out as a wave of dizziness hit her and her legs gave up, Sara's arms catching her. The position they had… eerily familiar to the Pathfinder.

She shook the dream out of her head. She wasn't losing Suvi, not now, not ever. She swore she'd have to be stone dead before she let that happen.

* * *

 _Eos desert_

 _17:45_

 _Temp. 36.9°C_

 _To: Sara Ryder._

 _From: Suvi Anwar_

 _Kallo thinks I've lost it because I keep smiling and giggling for no reason. It's not for no reason though. You're the reason._

 _Suvi_

It brought a tiny smile to Sara's face to see that message again. When she met Suvi, when they first lit their love in her Tempest quarters, it had been a brief break from their work. But when she got that message, she just knew that it went beyond a break. They were really something.

The lightly freckled redhead turned off her flickering, damaged omni-tool, returning that arm to lightly rest around the Scottish woman before her, Suvi's eyes closed as she laid the top half of her body on Ryder's lap. She looked down to Suvi's face, her eyes narrowing slightly as she saw that blood still continued to seep from her right eyelids. She couldn't see anything to wipe it away with… in the end, she reached to her shoulder and ripped the sleeve of her top away, making sure to use the inside of it on Suvi, knowing that getting sweat in her eye would be much less of a bother than grains of sand.

In the process of ripping the shirt, however, she'd mistakenly stirred Suvi from her brief rest and quickly placed her hand on the side of her love's face.

"Don't… open your eye, Suv. Just keep it still." Sara said quietly, before she lightly dabbed the cloth at the bloodied eyelids, almost feeling a twinge of that same agony herself as Suvi's pained whimpers hit her ears.

"Sara… d… did you… send out the signal?" Suvi managed to ask as Sara dabbed away the blood.

Sara made sure the blood was gone before she replied. "I did… I hope someone hears it."

Suvi glanced her left eye down, a twinge from her right eye as it tried to match the movement. "Sara, are we… are we going to be okay?"

"Suvi…" She'd answered many people's fear of death before, as a Pathfinder helping people in trouble was practically second only by the main objective. But this was different. Her own life was also in as much risk here, and she wasn't sure she had the heart to tell the one closest to her that they would likely die today.

She wouldn't lie to the woman she loved… so what could she tell her?

"I… sit up. I… need to take a look at that eye."

Suvi nodded and carefully shifted herself upright and up the dune bank slightly to be level with Sara. Ryder's fingertip lightly touched to the eyelids seam, releasing the tiny biotic field she'd used to keep the lids sealed.

"Slowly… carefully, open it carefully."

Suvi did so, slowly parting the lids… Sara's head tilted down slightly, her eyebrows lowering in an anger that was only almost contained. There she saw the eye… or rather, the remains of it.

"Is it… Sara, I can't see from it. Could it be the nerve severed or…" Suvi responded after a moment as she was trying to figure out her sudden blindness, and Ryder again couldn't bring up the words to tell her… but she didn't have to.

Suvi saw the bloodied mess in her eye socket in the reflection of her cracked glasses. "Oh my… Ryder?!"

"Come on… let it rest." Sara finally responded, returning her finger to the eyelids, delicately sealing them with tiny biotics again.

"No… we're not… we're dying here…" Suvi said as her body shook. Sara's arm, despite its bullet wound, went around her back and pulled her close. Finally, she had the words to say to it.

"Suvi… I've died and come back twice before. And… those Remnant, the Kett, even a handful of stupidly violent birds could kill me a hundred, a thousand times over before I'd ever let them come close to ending your life."

Suvi looked back and up at Ryder once she heard that, among a mix of things she was amazed at the words, at how Sara truly was committed to her.

"Sara… I don't know if I could live with that… without you."

The two leant back against the dune, in the blistering heat of the infinite desert. Maybe dreaming of their escape, of finally getting a refreshing shower aboard the Tempest and recovering with each other in the forward quarters. Or maybe they accepted their end, and that in each others arms, here and now, their time would expire.

The blue eyes closed. Then the green eyes closed.

Then the blast of a shuttle's landing thrusters hit their ears.


	8. E1C5: My Dearest Suvi

**Chapter Five - My Dearest Suvi**

* * *

Of all the places on the great old Earth, Scotland was one of the more remote and cold of the 195 countries. It had a running joke across the world of being a century out of date, the result of many farms there still using mid to late 21st century vehicles with diesel-electric hybrid power systems, as the enviroment plus the nature of the workload wasn't very friendly to the mass effect field engines which had recently come into widespread production.

It wasn't that they wouldn't work full stop. They were more prone to breaking, and unlike the old methods before even the hybrids became popular, mass effect reactors couldn't be patched up with 'bailing twine and duct tape'.

The weather was quite simple to predict. If it was a good day, it would be bright but misty and foggy in the mountain areas. If it wasn't misty, it would be raining. If it was close enough either side of January, that rain would instead be snow. There was little room for anything in between the three, and on this particular day, it was a misty, windy one, late in the month of October.

For one man walking down a street a short distance outside of Berwick, it was about to be a lifechanging day. The same went for the woman on the other side of the street.

He was embedded in a pad displaying the news of the day. She was reading data reports on her omni-tool.

He crossed the street… then found himself blinded. His vision was blackened, and he faced terror as he heard the blasting horn of a heavy freight hauler rapidly approaching.

Then he was knocked into, thrown to the old, worn down sidewalk. But not by the truck.

The crusty brown leaf was taken from his face. There, stood in front of the Scotsman was the young woman, one of asian descent with what he found to be the most striking blue eyes. He brushed his reddish brown hair back from over his eyes as he looked around, his breathing starting to slow down… but with this lady ahead of him, his heart certainly didn't ease off.

"You alright? He was going way too fast, you'd have thought we'd gotten reckless drivers sorted decades ago!" She spoke, her accent one of someone who'd grown up in the American reigon.

"You'd think so… thanks." He responded. It was at this point that, a few meters away, Sara lowered her pad to look over at them, while she was sat in the public transport waiting area.

"I'm Angel. Or… Angeline, you know how it is."

"Nice, nice name. Michael Anwar."

Sara's eyes peered back down to the pad… but her mouth smiled slightly.

Then the light engulfed her.

* * *

Several months passed. The snow came and went, the rain came and stayed. Under an umbrella, Angel and Michael ran through the darkened area, laughing between themselves. They'd spent the afternoon and evening together, out as they had several times before. They stopped at the doorway, the entrance to Angel's home. Their eyes met again, their thoughts almost telepathically linked.

Michael spoke after a moment of silence. "So I've… got a surprise for you." He reached into the large pocket of his coat, a little rustling noise coming from his hand. He took it out. The same large, brown leaf.

"Mike… you kept it?"

"Of course I did. See, let's talk equations for a moment. There was a gust of wind at the exact right strength, that blew this leaf which was at the exact right point of decay for it to break off. I had to be in the exact right place for that leaf to hit my face, then that freight vehicle had to be coming at that exact moment to nearly hit me, to make you run over. And if a single factor of any of those things hadn't happened, we'd have just kept walking… and I'd have never met you.

Which, to me, makes this the most important leaf in history."

Behind a nearby tree, Sara turned her head away as the two began to fall into a deep passion of kisses and newly confessed love.

The two would soon share a house in Scotland.

Then they'd have a little boy. He was called Alexander.

Then they'd have a little girl. She was called Selene.

Then they'd exchange rings.

Then they'd have another boy. He was called Tarmo

Then they'd have a boy called Niko.

But between Tarmo and Niko, they had a girl. A little blue eyed, red headed wonder called Suvi.

* * *

"Ah! Whoa, knee!" Sara exclaimed. An impact to the back of her right knee had sent it down to the floor, as she was stood in a central park area on the Citadel. She looked down, seeing a small rock at her foot as the culprit.

"My god, are you alright?!" Angel ran over, and turned slightly confused when Sara stood up with a flimsy looking karate stance of having her hands straight and flat, each slightly angled with her arms raised one ahead of the other, though she quickly lowered them again.

"Yes. Just fine, little shaky on the ol' leg… also a touch embarrased, I hope that's not dangerous."

"What's dangerous?" Angel asked.

"Embarrasement." Sara responded in a whisper. Angel just laughed, putting it down to the young lady trying to act funny in front of the gathering of children, ranging from Niko at 6 up to Alexander at 18. Somewhere in the middle, she figured that Suvi was around 8 or 9.

"No, not to my knowledge it's not." Angel laughed as she answered. Sara smiled.

"Well, thank the maker for that, hey? Ryder out of danger." Sara responded, as Michael jogged over followed by Suvi, Niko and Tarmo.

"So sorry about that, we were looking at rocks and she tends to just throw the ones she doesn't find anything with." Michael explained. Sara smiled at him, told him it was fine.

"Just watch what she does the lick test on, you hear? I did that once and my mouth came up like a balloon or a Mr. Potatohead." Sara added, before she made the younger ones giggle by blowing air into her closed mouth and puffing out her cheeks to demonstrate. "So… who's our world's newest rock fanatic?"

"Suvi." Angel answered.

Sara smiled and crouched down lower. "Ah… hello, Suvi." She said, the little Scottish girl smiling back, a bit nervous to speak…

* * *

He always had liked historic methods. Church bells ringing out across a large cemetery was the only sound that filled the air, as Suvi, her parents and the remaining three of her siblings stood at the freshly filled grave of Alexander. Water had filled his lungs and drowned him beneath several hundred feet of Atlantic, while he and a group had been surveying unusual ore deposits below the sea.

Suvi had, clutched in the 14 year old's arms, a book. An old paper book, the diary of her life so far and within it were written the best of memories she'd shared with her oldest brother. Now the only record of those joyful days. It had always been the same, while the youngest two boys had been quite preferable to being by themselves, Suvi had more enjoyed the company of her older sister and oldest brother, and they had returned that love. Now it was just the girls, without Alex.

Suvi looked up… her eyes caught Sara's, who was watching from a few grave rows away. She looked away and started walking, towards the glowing gap in the wall of the cemetery entrance.

* * *

"We're all so very proud of you, Suvi."

"I know… I'll really miss you, dad." Suvi and her father let go, the second in the long chain of hugs before she'd board the Hyperion and enter cryo sleep.

"Don't you think or worry about us. You'll be making science in the far future, leaving us lot in the dust… quite literally." Michael responded. Suvi then moved to the last of the hugs, that shared with her older sister.

"Don't let it change you, Suvi." Selene said quietly in her ear. "Eat it, pour your heart into all your work, but never be anything but Suvi Anwar."

"Always Suvi." Suvi responded as they moved back. The sisters were both trying to avoid crying but the more they thought on it and realised that they'd never see each other again, the more they wanted to never let go of that hug.

But when the announcement for cryo bays rang out, they knew they had to.

"You ready, Sara?"

She turned around. Stood between boarding rows 5 and 6, she could see the two faces all too familiar. Herself and Scott, about to board the Hyperion themselves.

"Time to go out there. Goodnight, love you, see you in the morning." Sara, the one stood in line, responded.

"Don't you mean 'goodnight, love you, see you in 600 years?" Scott questioned, Sara lightly shoving him in response to the joke.

"Bye home."

Sara whispered it in time with her past self… now she began to question what the hell was going on. Time passed, she snuck aboard the Hyperion and waited for many hours to end. It departed the moon's orbit, the four arms collapsed into the main split hull and it engaged its hyper-FTL drive.

"Hello, Sara."

"SAM?" She brought up her omni-tool as she stepped out from her hiding place, within one of thr many crates in the cargo hold. "Are you… _my_ SAM?"

"If you refer to the SAM present with you and the Tempest crew in the Heleus cluster after the dark space crossing, that is affirmative."

"Thank the stars… what the hell is going on? I've just replayed Suvi's timeline!" Sara let out a small exhale of relief that she may be getting some resolution.

"You may be interfacing with my system's data logs." SAM answered. Then picked up Sara's confusion. "Allow me to explain. As your mission's central computer node, I was encoded with much of the knowledge about the Hyperion, her carry compliment of people, and her cargo of possessions. Among this cargo was Dr. Anwar's personal diary, and for security reasons, the system screened all of it. As I am currently interfacing with your implant in order to maintain and revive you from your short coma, the connection may be interfacing both ways, so you are technically watching a 'movie' of my data banks."

"Huh… well, you always spoke of symbiosis." Sara responded.

"Indeed." SAM answered simply.

"So… how long have I been here exactly? I mean… in your data?"

"In entirety, your mind may have been linking in for several days. In terms of what you remember while playing through Dr. Anwar's diary, a matter of seconds."

* * *

"Seconds? OW!"

Sara had responded with her real mouth as she'd woken up, and yelped in pain at the stinging in her skin when she moved it.

"Do hold still, Pathfinder." She looked over after she recognised the voice of her ship's Asari doctor. "SAM has kept you in a light coma while I treated you. It takes a lot of adrenaline to not notice that a bird bit your finger off."

"Bit my… huh?!" Sara tried to raise her arm up ahead of her face.

"Don't worry, the finger has been reconnected with minimal problems, you'll hardly even have a scar." Lexi reassured her. "Although you might notice a small amount of discomfort in your skin, you and Suvi were out there for long enough to get a few nasty burns."

"Small amount?... I feel like I just ate a krogan curry dish with chapped lips. And cheeks."

Lexi laughed at that, before she helped Sara to carefully sit upright. They were aboard the Tempest, with her sat on one of the medbay's bio-beds.

Then the door opened.

"Sara!"

The Scottish science officer darted over to grip in a hug, which Sara painfully but gladly returned. The two moved back, and Sara noticed the eyepatch. "Is it bad? Bad bad?"

"Bad bad for a few weeks." Lexi answered as she stepped over back to her holographic display console. "With some regular checks, light omni-gel work and a good amount of rest, she'll have that eye back to near enough normal in a couple months."

"Ah, good. So it's all a happy ending. About time we had another one of those, since Meridian." Sara responded.

"Sure is. And some words from Bradley, he told me to let you know. The plan worked great, the Suviosaurs are settling and breeding nicely in their new ground a safe distance from Prodromos. He even ran an op to recover the Nomad for us and says that when you two next meet on the Nexus, he'll buy the first drinks round."

" _Now_ it's a happy ending… uh… Suviosaurs?" Sara responded, trailing off slightly midway as the remembered the name.

"Well… they are pretty similar to Earth's primative era of animals and… I did help to discover them…" Suvi explained. Sara just smiled, then motioned her off.

"Go on you cute thing, I'm sure Kallo is wondering where you've gotten off to. I'll be up when I can." Sara said. Suvi smiled in return, thinking for a moment of what to say. When no words came to mind, she stepped closer and carefully brushed her lips to Sara's, knowing that hers stung from the burns.

Once Suvi left, Lexi turned back to the Pathfinder. "Ryder, there's… one more thing."

"I know… SAM picked it up earlier, my biotics." Ryder responded. Lexi brought up a cross-diagram of Sara's biotic nerve system, both seeing the unusual tint of colour in the central body area.

"Ryder, if this is… SAM can stabalise you, right?" Lexi asked.

"To an extent, Dr. Teperro. I can't prevent it completely, the aberration will still continue to grow." SAM spoke, his core projection appearing at the head of the bio-bed.

"I'll add in any treatments I can, but… Ryder, I think you know as much as I that this, to put it in the most basic terms, is a biotic cancer. We can slow it, but… you're on a path to the end here." Lexi responded.

Sara just looked down. She'd known this would happen for a while, and at first she'd swallowed it up and gotten on with life. But then it had stopped, and she'd had hope.

Now it had returned and she wasn't ready anymore.

"That's the trouble with hope… makes you awfully frightened." She spoke quietly, thinking out loud.

"I believe that for once, you have been beaten in speed out of the medbay, Sara. Previously you have gotten out ahead of others but this time, Dr. Anwar was ahead of you. Might this be a flirting option?"

Lexi looked up with a shocked expression towards the SAM projection. Sara just laughed in response. "Keep working on it, SAM. You'll get there one day."

* * *

Ian T'Sari's eyes snapped open.

He sat upright, pulling himself off of the stone tiled floor. He could hear the peaceful tweeting of birds. Earth birds. Robins and Bluetits flying overhead, a Phesant slowly walking nearby.

He examined where he was. Sat on stone, in a small pillared porch with a glass roof. Ahead of that was an area of lush green grass, a large stone water fountain in the middle with flowers all around it, and another porch on the other side, identical in design but not in decoration.

"Hello!" Ian looked over. There was a man sat on the edge of the fountain. "Welcome! You made it!" He stepped closer, Ian making out his attire to be very Victorian in style. A long black jacket, a waistcoat with a chained pocket watch hung from its pockets, a cane, a top hat, the whole lot. He tucked the cane under his right arm and extended out his left hand to help Ian to his feet.

"Wh… who… are you?" Ian questioned, as the two sat down in cast iron chairs overlooking the garden.

"Well, I've a number of names, my friend. Some people call me god, some people might call me the grimm reaper… I always simply prefered the name Edron."

"Edron… where am I?"

"Be honest with me now. Did you torment that animal, or did it jump on you? Those Suviosaurs can be very mean sometimes. Except to me of course, because they love me so much. Much like your Pathfinder Ryder, she loves me too. Had a few changes here and there mind you… I do like her new girlfriend's accent. Think I might keep it." Edron spoke in response.

"Where are we?" Ian repeated. Edron put his right hand back on the top of the cane.

"Well you had your face pecked off by a bird, where do you think you are?" Edron responded in a casual tone. Then he sat more upright, motioning his arms out over the garden. "You made it, the promised land… paradise."

He stood up, as Ian looked around in shock.

"Welcome. To heaven."

Edron looked around with a deep inhale, then started off across the grass, around the fountain whilst flipping his cane around himself in a bit of a dance.

Ian figured that he'd be staying here for a long time to come… and looking around, he wasn't too against that idea.

* * *

 **Little interesting fact by the way. Suvi's older sister's name, Selene. There's a link there, no idea if anyone who's into mythology caught it. Selene was an archaic lunar deity and the daughter of the Titans Theia and, would you believe it... Hyperion.**


	9. Episode Two

Episode Two:  
 **LOST IN SPACE**

* * *

Everything is different. Everything has always been different. Nothing has ever not been different.

When the Tempest is assigned to investigate a strange anomaly in the Scourge, things change in drastic proportions. Easy to fix, right? You'd think so. The only problem is, nobody remembers what anything should be like.


End file.
